zmk1962

I have the split plastic corrugated tube held on by several cable ties protecting the wiring loom. The fuel line is in the bundle. It extends from the stern to the motor. the tube split faces down so any significant quantity of liquid can drain. Of course there would be some liquid residue in the corrugations. My boat lives in the open. For me, the main purpose of the loom cover is to provide UV protection and some additional mechanical protection (abrasion resistance) to the cables and fuel line. On my boat depending how the motor is trimmed the loom touches the non slip coating of the marlin board - the protector provides an extra layer. I am ok with some residual salt water being in there as the electrical cables are double insulated already and everything is waterproof. leaking fuel is easy to detect it SMELLS and can be seen floating on water - especially during wash down. Are you sure your fuel leak wasn’t caused when you were pulling off the protector? cheers Zoran PS - I have used spiral wrap in past. Just found that the wraps moved apart and hence compromised UV protection. I have not tried the mesh but don’t think it will provide UV protection.

Always great to be out with buddies and landing fish - nice one. cheers Zoran

Amazing fish mate. Fished Garie a lot in my younger years. Lots of bream, big ass tailor, bronze walers but never a red ! That’s awesome. cheers Zoran

Very well done! Can’t complain about that as a result of a changed plan. cheers Zoran

Not Quite. Offshore is as Dave describes - but because it’s a colloquial term that is not very specific it is not used by Maritime or related services. Maritime uses the terms “open waters” and “enclosed waters”. These are clearly defined on navigation charts and hence safety gear and such rules can be enforced. As an example, in the Hawkesbury estuary east of the line between Juno Pt and Flint and Steel is classified as limited open waters if waves are less than 0.5m and open waters if waves are over 0.5m. I’ve posted links to the navigation charts in the above post. cheers Zoran

Top shelf stuff Sam. You consistently get the reddies. Have to start calling you SSCRATCHIE soon - Sydney Scratchie! cheers Zoran PS - our belambie sesh must be getting closer!

Oooh. Now you’ve started an itch. Hmm may be the right time to target while night time temps are still in double digits! Top job. Thanks for the report. Agree on taste but quite contrary on preparation and bones. Lop off the head. The gut runs less than 1/3 of fish and is simple to remove (no black lining etc). There are no scales. Rub with hessian or edge of knife to remove the slime. Chunk into 8in lengths for cooking or fillet. There is a solid bone line running whole length of fish which separates away from flesh cleanly except for the gut flaps which have a few flexible bones. cheers Zoran

Top job Pickles and crew ... the smiles say it all ! cheers Zoran

Nice looking rig 👍... seen a few out at Browns... think you’ll be venturing far and wide for sure. best of luck. cheers Zoran

Tasty reddie! Great catch. Waiting for the weather to improve to hit the Sydney reefs! cheers Zoran

For sure. You’d definitely lose all those light cork handline things from your boat ! 🤪 cheers Z

Please reread my reply - I said “Almost” 😂. That’s a key word that establishes context and meaning. I was also going to say- “imagine what the catch would have been with a rod and some plastic ! “ ... but I bit my tongue as I am a nice person. Hahaha. I’ll make sure to pack a 1000m spool of braid for you next time we head to Browns! cheers fellas. Zoran

Good stuff Yowie! Almost makes me want to have a few estuary fishing sessions - haven’t done that in a while. cheers Zoran

For comparison I’m running an enertia 17p 14.5 dia prop. The vengence props are basic - they get the job done - but are less efficient. Generally spinning the biggest prop you can (pitch and dia) that gets you WOT and good hole shot gives you the best overall economy and performance. Also having the boat thrust (propeller) as close as possible to be inline with the keel is most efficient. The deeper the point of thrust the more lift it generates at the bow. I would be making one change at a time so that I can attribute the outcome to the specific change I made. So stick with the 17p but raise the motor. Carry the 16p with you and swap down at the ramp It’s a bit of a pain but will help you get to optimum set up quicker. Cheers Zoran

Well with that background and the v17 you’ll do well in a very short time. Just remember to leave some fish for me ! All the best. cheers Zoran ps - sorry didn’t mean to scare you. I have experienced the barrenjoey heads since the 70-80s. So just speaking from experience.

Dropping an inch in pitch has about a 6% effect on rpm/speed (excluding prop slip effect). Smaller pitch can give you more bite at lower rpm, giving better hole shot (but a drop in top end speed) .... dropping pitch will also increase the RPM at which you cruise, which may move you into the motor's sweet spot (torque spot) to help maintain your cruise RPM. But dropping pitch may also underprop you r motor and make the prop prone to cavitation. Especially if your motor has the torque to rapidly spin it up. (It will literally boil the water around it). Sometimes what is done is to drop the pitch and increase the diameter of the prop. What prop are yuo running now? I have a 150 like you (except mine is the pro xs). I run it on a very heavy FG 2T+ rig... and I don't drop RPM cruising. But even the standard 150, has a very flat torque curve - so you shouldn't be dropping rpm at cruise. There is something else going on. Where is your anti ventilation plate at cruising speed? It should be just below the water line around the motor.... (ie. don't worry so much about its position relative to the keel). The water wicks up from the back of the hull towards the motor. Depending on the hull design it can raise 1-2in. Your anti ventilation plate should be skimming just under the surface of that water around the motor. Initially fitting the motor we use the keel as a reference for the height, but after that it's a sea trial that gets it sorted as the sea trial takes into account how your hull sits in the water (how its loaded and how it rides) as well as how the water leaves the hull at the back. I've posted this previously - helps demonstrate: Cheers Zoran

Lots of great advice given above already. The V17 is a solid hull with a good reputation - you now need to build your experience and confidence... take your time there's no need to rush it. There's great fishing grounds out there, but take an approach of safety first, and most importantly experiment slowly so that you learn how your boat handles certain conditions and how it responds to your controls under those conditions. A good hull can help overcome small errors and will help you build your experience - but the most important factor in boating is skipper experience. There was a saying I posted previously "We all start out with a bag full of luck and an empty bag of experience - the objective is to fill our bag with experience before we run out of luck ! ". Personally on your first few trips, I would look for conditions with less than 1m swell as max. The waters coming out of broken bay can quickly pick up and be so choppy they present a danger to small craft. This happens under conditions such as a falling tide facing an easterly wind. As a result Maritime has classified the area from Juno/Flint and Steel to the heads as limited open waters if swell is under 0.5m and OPEN waters if swell is over 0.5m. That gives you an idea of what can happen within the estuary .... so at the heads, and 8km beyond the conditions can be even worse. I have a 6m+ ocean going hard top haines and I have had waves break over my bow and onto the windscreen coming back into broken bay ... all the way to patonga. Have a quick read of this summary - I have posted the link to the full fishraider article below as well. ""The rule of thumb for wind and swell is you get 1m of swell for every 10kts of wind, where the wind has been been blowing across the ocean for quite some distance. So a 20kt sou'easter will bring up a 2m SE swell. On top of the swell you get the "sea" which is the effect of the local wind. So a 1m swell with a 0.5m sea means 1.5m. This is called the combined sea state. Whenever you read a weather report containing wave heights it is important to remember these are an average, be prepared to meet waves up to twice that height !!!!!!!! This is why you must know your vessel limits because you may be able to handle 1m seas peaking at 2m but can you survive 2m seas peaking at 4m. How often does this happen? All the time !!!! This is what led to the total loss of a 6.0m long vessel off Long Reef last year in seas around 1.5m when they were suddenly confronted with a set of four 4m waves that went straight over the nose green and filled it completely. The vessel rolled over in less than 20 secs, and this was a 2C commercially built vessel." ...and this is the article with the Maritime open waters classification for Broken Bay .. Cheers Zoran

Absolutely top shelf stuff @TK01 ! Enjoying the fruits of your labour for sure. So good to see. Hmmm. The Merc 150 is a torque beast. If you can hit WOT then I would not say you are over propped. The porpoising can occur if the leg is too deep in the water on a light hull. Can you raise the motor a notch? You also mention "too much trim is required" ... what are you experiencing to say it's too much trim? Cheers Zoran PS - I have a very heavy haines and I often trim mine down (tuck the motor in) to cut thru the waves and to avoid porpoising - it uses a fraction more fuel but the ride quality improves 1000%. On the last trip, coming back through Sydney harbour @Pickles called it a hydrafoil - well thats the effect trimming in has on my hull.

Great report. Some top fishing there. cheers Zoran

Great report and catch JamoDamo! You saw more action on your bank than we did on the shelf 🤣. Good on you for giving it a go. KC has given you good advice re job hunting. You may also want to go to a few tackle shops and just have a chat to a store manager about what they look for in an applicant - you’ll be surprised what could come out of that. Best of luck with it. cheers Zoran

Actually maybe he was on your side of the boat too ! 🤣 cheers Z

It's a 25A plug. Probably a commercial grade appliance. You'd need a circuit board upgrade and dedicated circuit to feed the appliance to carry the load. https://www.plugsocketmuseum.nl/Australian3.html Cheers Zoran

Thanks Sam. But I think you meant to say - Perfect conditions for offshore boating! Great company for sure never makes for a bad day on the water. We never gave up. There was a school of small Tuna that showed up - hence why we dropped the bait and jig in .. but even they were on holidays enjoying the calm warm water. Thanks BN. Waves - I dare say they did not qualify for that. Maybe ripples would be more apt 🤣. Flatties rule as do Fishraider mates. I don't think we stopped chatting for a minute - always something interesting to discuss. Yeah - Pickles did mention we could waterski - and my comment was - I'm ok with that, but the guy on the skis has to hold a large hook as well - just in case we get a hit - wouldn't want to miss a strike 😁 Hey Adrian ... Yes it was the mako. If you watch the video on a larger screen in high definition (HD) youtube setting you can see the mako break the water. It must have had the sinker lodged in its mouth because we only lost the sinker - the deep drop rig/hooks came back all ok. Let's hope next time work will align with conditions and we can get you out there and on to some deep edible ooglies. 🤙 Thanks mate. Wasn't sure what to write, as there were no real fish to report on - but thought it worthy just to document the trip and mateship ... and the uncanny conditions. Who'd otherwise believe the "Pacific Pond" story? Thanks Yowie. We certainly did that! Total trip 10h24m. Distance on water 153km. Max speed 66.5km/h. Fuel 110L. You can't help but smile when the motor is wound out and the boat just kisses the sea - ahhhhh... Offshore with buddies... Fishing ... Boating LOVE IT ! I think we were still grinning at the ramp ! Thanks Rebel always good to get out. Cheers Zoran

Thanks for reminding us of this Wazza. I actually remember those events and reading the news paper articles of the day... Concentrated farming of any type is never a good idea ecologically - nature had not evolved the animals to live in such confined concentrated situations - the rapid spread of a disease becomes inevitable and a catastrophe. Lets hope we have learnt - and your article certainly helps to keep this past experience in mind. Cheers Zoran

Yup the fog has been think up the Hawkesbury the last few times. Good job on your own. Thanks for the report. Cheers Zoran